I'm not placing too much value on media suggestions that the likes of Ben Ainslee is a serious contender for SPOTY. I'm sure they all know that being part of a team winning America's Cup (which I had heard of) is nothing like winning Wimbledon in terms of sporting achievement, never mind historic significance.

I just think Andy's such an obvious winner of the prize this year that they are trying to drum up a bit of interest, or hype other achievements by suggesting it might not be so obvious.

The only way Andy won't win is because everyone presumes he's going to win, so doesn't vote, or there is some massive campaign for someone else.

The reality is that even people who have heard of the America's Cup, and think it's very exciting to watch and that it was an incredible come-back etc, know it's not on a par with winning Wimbledon. It's not on a par with winning the US Open as far as the general public is concerned. It's just one of those nice sports stories we can get a bit excited about when it's happening.

There has been talk that either Serena or Rafa could be international SPOTY, but does anyone even know the names of Ben's team-mates? I always use that as a marker for how big a sport actually is - do we know the names of the non-British competitors?

I suspect some of the lobbying is just a way of bigging up Sir Ben, who has achieved an awful lot in sailing, but never become a big star in the same way as Steve Redgrave, and probably does deserve to be thought of in that way. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a Lifetime Achievement Award with his name on it, if not this year, but some time in the near future.

Unfortunately, clumsily pushing his name as a serious challenger for SPOTY risks having people pointing out that his achievement wasn't all that. It's a bit like Cameron rushing to suggest no-one deserved to be Knighted more than Andy. He was just caught up in the hype and being a typical politician, trying to associate himself with someone else's glory, but it prompted loads of people to say why it was a daft thing to say, and some people to get quite worked up, almost blaming Andy and encouraging perfectly sensible columnists to diminish what he'd done, instead of just enjoying it.

Murray 335 Ainslie79I noticed last night that this year on Strictly the viewers can vote on line for the first time now if one can vote on line for Andy when the time comes that should help people like me who live out in the sticks This is because our phone facility cannot compete with lots of calls going through from towns and cities